Head Start programs engage parents to support children's growth from birth through age 5 through services that promote early learning and development, health, and family well-being. These programs specifically seek to assist families with low incomes and families facing a variety of other adversities. The Head Start REACH: Strengthening Outreach,…

Decisions being made on Capitol Hill and in state capitals may seem remote from the experiences of early childhood professionals, but policymakers have a big impact on babies and families. Early childhood professionals and parents bring key expertise and passion to policy advocacy and have a powerful role to play. This article identifies the…

We examined the use of an intervention package consisting of the system of least prompts (SLP), visual schedules, peer models, and contingent reinforcement to teach four children with disabilities to independently play board games and communicate with their typically developing peers. We found the intervention package with individual adaptations…

In the spring of 2020, the emerging COVID-19 pandemic prompted states across the country to mandate that most early childhood education programs close, leaving families with young children scrambling to adapt to full-time caregiving and leaving educators uncertain of their economic and professional future. For many communities, this hardship was…

Here the authors explore everyday teaching strategies that work to implement early childhood curriculum frameworks, using published transcripts of video-recorded data of real-life teacher-child interactions in early childhood centres in Australia and New Zealand. The analysis uses a conversation analysis approach to reveal the sequences of action…

This research paper investigates how graduate early years practitioners support under-threes with early reading; presenting their perceptions and daily encounters. Previous research into the practice and pedagogy of early reading appears to have resulted in the latest overarching policy investment in phonics. This paper suggests that this…

The Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) is preparing to undertake the work of reviewing the state early learning standards - Indiana's Early Learning Foundations (the "Foundations"). In anticipation of this work, staff at IDOE have requested support from the Region 8 Comprehensive Center in identifying approaches states have taken in…

Developing early reading skills is important for long-term academic success. Too often, however, young children do not have the foundations of literacy they need. One-third of Tennessee students read on grade level (Tennessee Department of Education, 2021), and in the state's capital city of Nashville, three out of four 3rd graders are not reading…

This practical resource explains brain development from prenatal to age 8 with suggestions for activities educators and caregivers can use to foster children's cognitive growth. The authors begin with the basics of brain development, and the issues that affect it, and then provide information specific to infant, toddler, preschool, and…

There are concerns about the quantity and quality of personnel in early childhood intervention (ECI) as the numbers of infants and young children with delays and disabilities grow in number, needs, and diversity. The Early Childhood Personnel Center (ECPC) was funded to provide technical assistance (TA) to state systems of ECI and institutions of…

This study is the first to systematically investigate the influence of child gender and age, on parents' perceptions of UK children's digital media use at home. It provides an in-depth exploration of how children's age and gender influence the balance between children's use of digital and non-digital media at home. The data draw on 709 parents'…

Lexical comprehension is commonly measured by parent report, but it may be difficult for parents of children with ASD to accurately judge their child's comprehension. We compared parent report to an eye-gaze measure of lexical comprehension in which participants observed pairs of images on a screen, along with accompanying speech that named one of…

This article examines similarities and differences in Chilean teachers' competences, which were organized into profiles, and the associations of these profiles with children's language development. Teacher-child interactions were assessed when the children were 12 (n=99) and 30 months old (n=73), using the Adult Sensitivity Scale, the Evaluation…

Research Findings: This article summarizes current peer-reviewed research and conceptualizations of collaboration and presents a new conceptual model. Authors found that the existing peer-reviewed literature does not adequately reflect emerging understandings of the nature of early childhood collaborations or the contributions such collaborations…

Working with children under five years old and the adults that accompany them is a rapidly growing area within the museum and wider cultural sector, with important emphasis being placed on early learning in both the United Kingdom and United States. For history museums in particular, early learning offers a unique set of questions and challenges,…